11 Inspiring Quotes From WhatsApp's Billionaire Co-Founders
Acton on advertising: “Dealing with ads is depressing. You don’t make anyone’s life better by making advertisements work better.”
Acton on WhatsApp's mission: "We don't want to build a hookup app so you can find someone weird to talk to. It's not what we're about. We're about your intimate relationships."
Koum on traditional SMS: “It stinks. It’s a dead technology like a fax machine left over from the seventies, sitting there as a cash cow for carriers.”
Acton on the company's history: "We're the most atypical Silicon Valley company you'll come across. We were founded by thirtysomethings; we focused on business sustainability and revenue rather than getting big fast, we've been incognito almost all the time, we're mobile first, and we're global first."
Koum on metrics: "Comparing total registered users and active users is like comparing Ferrari 250 GTO with a skateboard."
Acton on Snapchat: "It's not 100 per cent clear to me what's working about Snapchat. Great, teenagers can use it to get laid all day long. I don't care. I'm 42, essentially married with a kid. I don't give a s--- about this."
Koum on his childhood: "It was so run-down that our school didn't even have an inside bathroom. Imagine the Ukrainian winter, -20°C, where little kids have to stroll across the parking lot to use the bathroom. ...I didn't have a computer until I was 19–but I did have an abacus."
Koum on user privacy: "We want to know as little about our users as possible. We don't know your name, your gender… We designed our system to be as anonymous as possible. We're not advertisement-driven so we don't need personal databases."
Koum on their no-nonsense style: "Neither of us has an ability to bull----."
Koum on ambition: "We won’t stop until every single person on the planet has an affordable and reliable way to communicate with their friends and loved ones."
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